Author's Posts

In the body-focused repetitive behaviour community, many people who have a BFRB or multiple BFRBs are searching for a cure. And if not a cure specifically, all of us are looking for answers of some sort—causes, triggers, what helps,...

Inspired by a blog on The Mighty about things the blogger wished she had been told about mental illness, I thought let’s delve into what we wished we had been told about body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs), starting with dermatillomania....

It’s becoming more and more evident to me that there’s a stark divide between two different philosophies when it comes to body-focused repetitive behaviours. One the one side of things, we have community members who strive to be behaviour-free....

There are a number of posts that circulate at this time of the year featuring quotes about what people with anxiety, depression, bipolar, or just mental health in general would like others to know during the holiday season. When...

This guest blog was written by Tasneem Abrahams, a CBT therapist who treats BFRB clients, mainly with skin excoriation disorder and trichotillomania. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to have the most effective results for helping people with BFRBs...

Something that I’ve been working on behind the scenes for the past week or so is getting in touch with The Mighty and seeing about us partnering with them. And guess what? It’s happened! I’m thrilled to share with...

Nearer to the beginning of BFRB Awareness Week, which was from October 1st to 7th, someone posted in one of the Facebook groups questioning the point of it. The point the commenter seemed to be making was that since awareness...

I was thinking the other day how strange it is that despite the body-focused repetitive behaviour community being part of the larger mental health community, there are still some topics that don’t get discussed. It’s especially strange considering how...

“I used to cringe when I would hear the word ‘pick.’ It could be pick a colour, it could be pick a direction, pick a college, it didn’t really matter.” Lauren McKeaney’s story with skin picking started out like...

In today’s world there’s a constant war between aesthetics or outward appearance and inward beauty. Seeing as we’re constantly bombarded by largely unattainable beauty standards and a narrow view of what beauty is, people rebel with ads and messages...

I hope this blog, the first after a long period of silence, doesn’t come across too awfully, but there’s something that bugs me about the community. It’s a bit of a rant, I guess you could say. “Am I...

All of us in the BFRB community seem to consider making that monumental Facebook post. It seems to feel like our tell-all novel of our BFRB(s) in post form, where we say I have trichotillomania, dermatillomania, onychophagia, dermatophagia, trichotemnomania...

Last year around this time, we worked with the thought of throwing away all the negative as we moved into the new year. This year, I want to take a different perspective. Yes, throw away whatever is negatively impacting...

Scars are strange things. Not necessarily in how they biologically exist, but more so in how they’re treated. I, for instance, have a few different kinds of scars. Dermatillomania scars, of course, but I also have a dog bite...